Ever felt like a change but not sure how to drive it? In this raw, personal and passionate talk, mindset strategist Frederique Murphy shares with you how, at the worst time of her life, she stumbled upon a success formula that led her to extraordinary change. She uses science to help you create a winning neural pathway in your brain, so that you too can hit the jackpot!Clip length: 9 mins 17 secs

Expectations: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!

Ever wondered why you feel pain when you don’t meet a goal? or Why you feel good when you do? or Why you feel so good when you reach more? Beyond the rationality of these 3 scenarios, and of course understanding why you would feel pain when not reaching something or feel good when reaching it, there is an actual neuroscientific explanation to what is going on.

When any of these 3 things happen – and you know that these happen all the times, both to you and your clients, in your life, career, business – your brain releases or withdraws dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, produced in the brain, primarily involved in motivation and reward. When it releases dopamine, you feel good; when it withdraws it, you feel pain. The more your brain releases dopamine, the more you want to keep going and experience it over and over again.

When it comes to you or your clients not meeting, meeting or exceeding something, dopamine plays a huge role. And, all 3 scenarios are linked to the same one thing: EXPECTATIONS.

Expectations are what we think, or hope, is most likely to happen, and whether or not we realise it, we actually have expectations about everything. Let’s break down these 3 scenarios and see what happen when….

…your or your coachee’s expectations aren’t met: you or they experience a fall of dopamine; it feels painful,

…your or your coachee’s expectations are met: you or they experience a boost of dopamine; it feels good,

…your or your coachee’s expectations are exceeded: you or they experience a super boost of dopamine; it feels super good.

As coaches, I believe that the gap between unconscious expectations and conscious expectations is where our potential lies. Work with your clients to help them become aware of their unconscious expectations; this will help them manage their expectations better, and in turn they’ll gain a better control of their dopamine releases throughout the day, thus increasing their motivation.

How will you use this knowledge to better manage your expectations? And, your clients’ ones? I’d love for you to share; this will be helpful for the other coaches. Comment below!

About Frederique Murphy

Specialising in Inspirational Leadership, Frederique Murphy is a mindset strategist who inspires leaders to believe and accomplish the extraordinary. With her Mountain Moving Mindset (M3) platform, she equips you with scientifically-based strategies to take your life, career and business to a whole new level: she makes change happen. With over 15 years of experience in corporate change and expertise in positive psychology, neuroscience and behaviour change, she helps your organisation reap the benefits of tapping into the power of the mind. Frederique is a passionate and charismatic speaker, who captivates audiences – when she takes to the stage, sparks fly and beliefs, attitudes and behaviours will be instilled to create lasting change. For more information on Frederique’s transformational services, visit FrederiqueMurphy.com.

From the perspective of Coaches, neuroscience is the field that can inform them of important things about the brain. Things that are key to new ways that you work with clients and also things that underpin things you are already familiar with. Neuroscience can explain why and how Coaching works. It can enlighten Coaches as to things to pay particular attention to. It can warn against other practices.

We believe an understanding of neuroscience will become expected to underpin everything that sits on top of it. Neuroscience is not claiming to be better than anything a Coach currently does or to replace it. Rather we suggest it will enhance your understanding of those you work with.

What can neuroscience offer the Coaching World?

An understanding of what happens when a person is being Coached,

Ways to create the best Coaching environment for clients,

For Coaches who use particular models, an understanding of how they might work or an opportunity to stop using outdated concepts,

A foundational understanding of the brain through which to evaluate everything,

The opportunity to ask better quality questions and consider what interventions would best serve your client,

A focus on important considerations for how to get desired action occurring, e.g. mental stress leads to habit behaviour rather than goal-directed behaviour so this informs how / when.

How does neuroscience relate to other disciplines?

We can think of neuroscience as a friend to other disciplines, such as psychology. Often in academic circles there is cross over and collaboration. In my team we have neuroscientists, psychologists, behaviour analysts and several other experts. In the spirit of full disclosure I’ll share that sometimes we generate a little heat between the neuroscientists and the behaviour guys. Ultimately though we all realise that we can each learn from one another and stimulate deeper research and insights.

When can I use neuroscience with a client?

There are a huge number of opportunities within a normal Coaching engagement to use neuroscience to guide us. Here are just a few, many of which take on new depth and significance when you understand the neuroscience (remembering some words have slightly different psychological or neuroscientific meaning to in normal Coaching usage, e.g. reward):

Explore your client’s normal environment and where they are when they need to do behaviours leading to goal attainment

Behavioural evaluation

Hot & Cold network

Your client’s behaviour is key to their results and is influenced by many factors.

Rewards

Dopamine

Helping your client understand what is currently activating their reward circuitry can be empowering and important in making changes

Habits analysis

Hebbs Law, Basal Ganglia

Being clear on how new habits are formed

From the perspective of the Coach it makes sense to immerse oneself in all areas of study that can help us understand better how people’s minds and brains work.

About Amy Brann

If you’ve enjoyed this article, I invite you to visit Amy’s website, and become a member of her free and insightful Neuroscience for Coaches community, so that you can further experience the impact of applying neuroscience insights on your life and career! Understanding how the brain works gives you a competitive advantage over Coaches who do not. As a welcome gift, you will receive a special complimentary resources bundles that includes the 1st chapter of ‘Neuroscience for Coaches’, your Neuroscience for Coaches checklist, and your Neuroscience for Coaches Insights ebook.

I know that many readers are curious about new developments and increasing your own coaching knowledge to benefit your clients and coaching business.

Today I wanted to share some information that includes special time limited bonuses that I suspect will appeal to professional personal and executive Coaches along with managers who have coaching roles.

Over the past couple of decades advancements in technology has allowed an increased understanding about how the human brain physically works. Neuroscience research can now often be found reported in the general media rather than just specialist medical journals.

There is now the knowledge to apply Neuroscience concepts to real coaching situations such as goals, expectations, fairness, optimism, and willpower.

There is an upcoming Applied Neuroscience For Coaches programme especially for coaches to discover the latest insights into how your, and your clients, brain works. Understanding such concepts enables you to effectively help, support, challenge, and guide, so that you rise to the top of your coaching game. Understanding how the brain works gives our programme attendees a competitive advantage over Coaches who do not.

Previously on Coaching Confidence:

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